Seasonal downtown Bismarck heritage walking tour · Visits roughly ten documented historic sites · Covers Bismarck's 'Murderers Gulch' and 'Bloody 4th' saloon-era history · Includes access to the downtown underground tunnels
The Downtown Bismarck Haunted History Tour is a ticketed walking tour run by URL Radio, a downtown Bismarck media organization, and guided by Stacy Sturm. According to KX News and KFYR-TV reporting, the tour covers about ten historic downtown sites over roughly an hour, telling each location's documented past alongside its ghost stories.
The stops reported in local coverage include the Patterson Hotel, the Dakota Stage building, and the Prince Hotel, all of which carry their own documented histories in downtown Bismarck. The narration draws on the early-twentieth-century reputation of Broadway as 'Murderers Gulch' and Fourth Street as 'Bloody 4th,' when gambling, gunfights, stabbings, and saloon brawls were common, and on a fire that nearly destroyed the early city.
The tour runs seasonally, on most Fridays and Saturdays in September and October, with start times typically at 7:00 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. Tickets are about $15 per person and pre-registration is required; walk-ups are not accepted. The route ends at the network of tunnels that run beneath downtown Bismarck, which the guide opens to participants at the close of the tour.
Sources
- https://www.kxnet.com/news/local-news/destination-dakota-downtown-bismarcks-haunted-history-tours/
- https://www.kfyrtv.com/2022/10/24/haunted-history-tours-bismarck/
- https://theurlradio.com/1556/haunted/
Apparitions at downtown tour stopsPhantom music and footstepsObjects reported moved overnightUnexplained sounds in the downtown tunnels
The tour's appeal is that its ghost stories sit directly on top of documented history. The guide pairs each of the roughly ten stops with both a verified historical event and the haunting reputation that grew up around it. Local reporting frames the experience as a way to learn the city's lesser-known and darker past rather than as a staged scare attraction.
The Patterson Hotel, a recurring stop, is associated in local accounts with phantom big-band music heard from a closed upper floor and glassware found moved overnight in its ground-floor bar. Other downtown buildings on the route, including the Dakota Stage theater building on 'Bloody 4th' Street and the Prince Hotel, carry their own reports of apparitions, footsteps, and unexplained sounds.
The tour closes underground, at the tunnels that run beneath downtown. The guide uses the tunnels both as a literal endpoint and as a way to tie together the night's stories about the hidden side of early Bismarck.
Notable Entities
Former hotel and saloon patrons (unnamed)
Media Appearances
- Destination Dakota: Downtown Bismarck's Haunted History Tours (TV news, 2022)
- Haunted history tours of Bismarck (TV news, 2022)
